microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript
`checkJs` skips `.mjs`/`.cjs` beside a `.d.mts`/`.d.cts`, but not `.js` beside a `.d.ts`
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Description
### 🔎 Search Terms
checkJs, allowJs, .d.mts, .d.cts, declaration file adjacent to implementation, file silently dropped from program, extension priority
### 🕗 Version & Regression Information
Reproduces identically on 5.9.3, 6.0.3, and 7.1.0-dev.20260916.1. Long-standing, not a regression.
### ⏯ Playground Link
Not applicable: needs two sibling files on disk plus `moduleResolution: nodenext`.
### 💻 Code
Three directories, identical but for extensions. Same `tsconfig.json` in each; `package.json` has `"type": "module"` only for the `.mjs` case.
`index.js` / `index.mjs` / `index.cjs`:
```js
export const n = 1;
const bad = null;
bad.a.b.c();
```
`index.d.ts` / `index.d.mts` / `index.d.cts`:
```ts
export declare const n: number;
```
```json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "esnext",
"module": "nodenext",
"moduleResolution": "nodenext",
"allowJs": true,
"checkJs": true,
"strict": true,
"noEmit": true
}
}
```
### 🙁 Actual behavior
```
index.js + index.d.ts -> error TS18047: 'bad' is possibly 'null'.
index.mjs + index.d.mts -> (no output)
index.cjs + index.d.cts -> (no output)
```
The same authoring relationship — a hand-written declaration file beside its implementation — produces opposite outcomes based only on the file extension.
In the `.mjs`/`.cjs` cases the implementation is not merely unchecked, it is absent from the program: `--listFiles` reports only `index.d.mts`. In the `.js` case `--listFiles` reports both `index.d.ts` and `index.js`.
### 🙂 Expected behavior
The three rows should agree. Either all of them check the implementation, or none do.
I'd expect the `.js` row to be the correct one — the declaration file describes the module for consumers, and `checkJs` still checks the implementation — but consistency matters more than which way it goes.
### Additional information
#47796 reported the `.mjs`/`.mts` variant and was closed as "Working as Intended", on the rationale that the JS file is a build artifact of the TS file, and that "the compiler only automatically pulls in one copy of a file with the same basename (the most TS-y one)".
That rationale doesn't extend to this case:
- A `.d.mts` is not something a `.mjs` is emitted *from*, so the build-artifact framing doesn't apply. `.d.ts` + `.js` is the same relationship, and there the compiler does pull in both.
- Neither does the one-copy-per-basename rule, for the same reason — `index.js` and `index.d.ts` are both in the program.
The failure is silent, which is what makes it expensive: a package shipping `.mjs`/`.cjs` with adjacent hand-written declarations gets no checking of its implementation at all, while every sibling module without a declaration file is checked normally. `tsc` exits 0 and CI is green. I found this only by deliberately breaking a file and noticing the build still passed. Per #47796, VS Code *does* report these errors, so the editor and CI silently disagree.
#64098 is the same silent-drop shape from wildcard `include` (`hasFileWithHigherPriorityExtension`), if the two are related.
So, concretely:
1. Make the three rows consistent, or
2. if this is intended, document which sibling extensions suppress checking, and emit a diagnostic when an input file is dropped from the program for this reason.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by running the three-directory reproduction with tsc --listFiles and compare the .js/.d.ts, .mjs/.d.mts, and .cjs/.d.cts results. Trace the extension-priority behavior around hasFileWithHigherPriorityExtension, referenced from #64098. Done means the three cases behave consistently, with coverage for the silent-drop scenario.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript, typescript
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100